This invention is directed to a toy which can be attached to items of baby furniture and utilized to provide entertainment for an infant occupying the article of furniture. More specifically it includes an elongated track having a housing which is movable on the track. The track is attachable to railings or other structures on the items of furniture.
In order to assist infants in developing hand/eye coordination and other useful physiological and intellectual abilities, a variety of items have been developed which can be attached to a baby's crib, playpen, or the like. These include mobiles, and activity boxes or centers. A variety of visual and audio stimuli have been utilized with these devices.
For the most part the devices described in the preceeding paragraph have been constructed so they can attach to a single side rail of a crib, playpen, or the like. This construction is necessary because of the physical dimensions between opposing sides of items of baby furniture such as cribs, playpens, or the like. Further, with regard to cribs, normally the crib is manufactured such that the side rails can be raised or lowered. These generally move up and down vertically. However, some are constructed so as to use hinges allowing a top section to fold with respect to a bottom section. A movable side rail on a crib assists in placing the baby in and removing the baby from the crib, as well as allowing the surface of the crib to be utilized in changing the baby, or the like.
Heretofore, because of the movable side rails utilized almost universally in modern cribs, a toy or device for the crib has not been able to take advantage of the stability offered by attaching the device to both of the side rails of the crib. The reasons for this are two-fold based simply upon the geometry of the crib. First, not all cribs have their side rails placed at the exact same distance apart from one another. Thus, if a device was adapted for use on cribs of one size, it would be inoperable on a crib of a different size. Secondly, as the side rails of a crib are raised and lowered, the actual dimension betweem the tops of the individual side rails increase and decrease. Thus, even though a prior device may fit across the side rails when both of the side rails are in either the up or the down position, the device would not fit on the side rails when one side rail was moved and the other was held fixed.
The prior expedience which had been proposed to solve the above dilemma with regard to spacing of the side rails, have included suspending items across the side rails utilizing flexible cords, elastic cords, or springs. These have inherent problems. The use of a flexible cord can create a dangerous situation if for some reason the cord becomes untied and the baby seizes the end of the cord and becomes entangled in the same. Elastic cords have the same problem. Springs, on the other hand, provide convolutions in which the baby and/or its parent can be entangled in. This can cause pinching and bruising of body parts.